[ Post a Response | The Sublime Desire of Cigarette Smoking ]
Posted by nobody on March 14, 2007, 12:55 am, in reply to "Re: "St. Nicotina"" Indeed, even from purely an ethical standpoint, I don't see serious problems here, given that we live in a society where abortion on demand is routinely demanded millions of times a year. That is to say, looking at this from a pro-choice perspective, I don't see a whole lot of difference between exercising the right to choose to use one's womb as a personal carbon monoxide chamber for the developing fetus and exercising one's right to choose to have an abortion, the latter of which produces a far deadlier (and far more certain) outcome. Either way, the result may be the same. (See the two images for divergent viewpoints on this issue.)
Link: Another Viewpoint
Agreed, Vesperae. IMHO, pregnancy prosthetic or no, the St. Nicotina image is no more "shocking" than the two Roy Castle TV spots you posted in the video/audio archive some time ago, which, as you correctly observed then, are so "over-the-top" and absurd as to induce snickers of derision rather than gasps of genuine horror or disgust. Having said this, I also think its use as a means to illustrate how smoking has the potential to influence the viewer's impression of a woman who consciously chooses to indulge her physical and/or emotional desires by placing a life other than her own at risk is quite effective -- and entirely consistent with the themes you've explored here before. 
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